Method of making automobile frames



May 9, 1933. N. E. WAHLBERG METHOD OF MAKING AUTOMOBILE FRAMES Original Filed Aug. 31, 1928 Patented May 9, 1933 UNITED STA TES PATENT OFFICE NILS ERIK WAHIBERG, OE KENOSHA, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR TO THE NASH KOTOBS CO HPANY, OF 'KENOSHA, WISCONSIN, A. CORPORATION OF MARYLAND METHOD OF'MAKING AUTOMOBILE FRAMES Original application filed August 31, 1928, Serial No. 303,155. Divided and this application filed February 9, 1931.

This invention relates to improvements in members, whereby an especially strong and rigid construction is obtained, and saidframes may be produced with greater econom in less time and without the attendant di culty of warping or getting out of shape,

7 as is usually the case with ordinary riveted frame structures. Other objects of the invention will appear from time to time as the description proceeds.

This application is a division of my prior application, Serial No. 303,155, filed August 31, 1928,?and issued as Patent No. 1,893,721 and relates more particularly to the method of welding the several cross members to the side frames in a single operation.

The invention may best be understood by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of an automobile frame constructed in accordance with my invention. Q

Figure 2 is a plan view of a portion of the frame showing it in the process of manufacture and illustrating the method whereby the several cross, members may be joined to a side frame in one welding operation.

Figure 3 is an enlargedviewshdwingthe arrangement of one of the cross frame members before it is welded to the side frames.

- of the invention illustrated in the drawing,

it will be seen that I provide an automobile frame made up of a plurality of pressedsteel side frame members 10, 10, having inwardly formed upperand lower flanges 11,

. 11,.of the usual form, to which'tubular cross members 12,12 are directly welded. I am aware thatit has been'here -ofore proposed Serial N 0. 514,429.

to weld tubular cross members to flanged end members which in turn are welded or riveted to side frame members, but in the present invention I initially form the side frame members during the forming or pressing operation with nipples suitable to be directly welded to tubular cross members, as will now be described. y

In carrying out my invention, I provide an improved form of nipple, indicated at 15, 15, each comprising a relatively deep depression in the outer face of the side frame members 10, with its walls 16. converging inwardly in frusto-conical shape to an extension 17 of the proper size and shape to be welded directly to its respective cross member 12. In the preferred form shown, the cross members 12 are of circular cross section and are butt-welded to the nip les 15, and in this form the section 17 is o substantially the same thickness as the adjacent ends of the cross members 12. i

It will be understood that the shape of the nipples 15, 15 is such as to readily lend themselves to be drawn in an ordinary pressing operation and preferably, during the same operation in which the marginal flanges 11, 11

are formed, which pressing operations will and the severa cross members so as to pass a current slmultaneously across the several joints, and thus form a series of butt-welds 18, 18 in the usual manner.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, all of the butt-welds 18, 18 formed as above described, may be readily formed of uniform strength during a single welding operation, owing to the well-established phenomenon wherein the welding currents side frame and are of suc rent than the remaining wel ing points in the circuit. Durin the welding o ration the adjacent ends 0 portions 17 an 12 are.

reduced somewhat in length, in the usual manner, to form a Welded joint 18.

Among the advantages of the invention above described is the ease and simplicity of construction whereby all riveting, bolting or the like is entirely eliminated, and the frame is welded into a single integral piece having required strength and rigidity at the point of connection of the cross members and the side frame. The nipples 15, 15 are readily formed during the pressin oppration of the s a as' to resist the stresses imposed upon t em.-

As a further advantage of m im roved method of forming a plurality of wel s in a single operation, 1t Wlll be understood that the frame so formed is not subject to wa ing or getting out of shape as is the case w ere the several joints may be welded separately, or as is especiall noticeable in ordinary forms of riveted rame structures, wherein a large proportion of such latter fram'es are found to be twisted out of proper shape, no matter how great care is ta en in their fabrication.

I claim:

The method of forming a steel frame consisting of pressed steel side frame members and a plurality of tubular cross members, which consists in pressing the upright webs of said side frame-members at longitudinally spaced points into nipples havin inwardly converging intermediate walls an a tubular open end, and simultaneously moving a plu rality of said tubular cross members into endwise engagement with the tubular ends of v their respective nipples to weld the samgci'n a single operation.

Signed at Kenosha, Wis., this 6th day of February, 1931.

WAHLBERG. 

